Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Names and faces
■ Pope Francis welcomed doctors and nurses from the coronavirus-ravaged region of Lombardy to the Vatican on Saturday to thank them for their selfless work and “heroic” sacrifice. Francis dedicated one of his first post-lockdown audiences to Italy’s front-line medical and civil protection personnel, telling them that their example of professional competence and compassion would help Italy forge a new future of hope and solidarity. The northern region of Lombardy, Italy’s financial and industrial capital, was the hardest-hit region in the onetime European epicenter of the pandemic. Lombardy has counted more than 92,000 of Italy’s 232,000 official infections and half of the country’s 34,500 dead. Francis noted that some of those dead were the doctors and nurses themselves, and said Italy would remember them with “prayer and gratitude.” More than 40 nurses and 160 doctors died during the outbreak nationwide, and nearly 30,000 health care personnel were infected. Francis said Lombardy’s medics and nurses became literal “angels” helping the sick recover or accompanying them to their death, given their family members were prevented from visiting them in the hospital.
■ Beyonce did not let Juneteenth pass without dropping one of her signature surprises — a new single called Black Parade.
“I’m going back to the South, I’m going back where my roots ain’t watered down,” Beyonce sings, opening the track. At several points on Friday’s release, the singer tells listeners to “Follow my parade.” Proceeds from the song will benefit Black-owned small businesses, a message entitled “Black
Parade Route” on the singer’s website said. The post included links to dozens of Black-owned businesses. “Happy Juneteenth. Being Black is your activism. Black excellence is a form of protest. Black joy is your right,” the message said. Juneteenth commemorates when the last enslaved African Americans learned they were free. While the 1862 Emancipation Proclamation freed slaves in the South beginning Jan. 1, 1863, it wasn’t enforced in many places until after the end of the Civil War two years later. Confederate soldiers surrendered in April 1865, but word didn’t reach the last enslaved Black people until June 19, when Union soldiers brought the news of freedom to Galveston, Texas. Juneteenth was marked with new urgency this year, amid weekslong protests over police brutality and racism sparked by the death of George Floyd, a Black man, at the hands of Minneapolis police. Beyonce spoke out on social media in the wake of Floyd’s death. “We’re broken and we’re disgusted. We cannot normalize this pain,” she said in an Instagram video.